smell of breakfast, which the captain had directed the
steward to go on getting as if nothing had happened--thus to punish the
poltroon in a sort of way for his cowardly alarm; hence, the coast was
left clear for the officers and men to put out the fire without being
flurried by the fears and importunities of the passengers.

Meanwhile, Captain Dinks with Mr Meldrum, who was the first to
volunteer--their efforts well supported by the exertions of McCarthy and
the second mate and Frank Harness--were working like Britons in the
_Nancy Bell's_ hold.

The fire had broken out, as Frank had stated, almost in the centre of
the ship; for two bulkheads had to be battered down and the main deck
cut through, before the source of it could be reached. However, by dint
of arduously plying the axe and crowbar, an opening was at length made
whence the fire could be got at. Flames immediately burst forth the
moment air was admitted into the hold, but these were pressed down with
wet blankets, and, the fire-hose being carried down and the pumps manned
by the watch on deck, a copious stream of water was directed throughout
that portion of the ship where all the light woollen and textile goods
were stowed. The hose, too, was supplemented by a continuous relay of
buckets full of water passed rapidly along the lower deck and down the
hatchway by the starboard watch--whose turn it was below, but whom the
alarm of fire had caused to rouse out again to duty--so that in half an
hour from the discovery of the outbreak all danger was over and the last
spark quenched.

"Thank God!" said Kate Meldrum, with heart-felt earnestness, her lovely
eyes full of tears as she looked up into Frank's face when he came to
tell her the news. "I thought all hope was gone, you were so long in
coming!"

"But were you not certain I would come?" asked Frank anxiously.

"Yes, I had confidence in your promise."

"Thank you," was all he replied; but his look spoke volumes.

At the same time another mutual "confidence game" was being played in a
different part of the ship; but in this the understanding was between
Mr Meldrum and Ben Boltrope, the ship's carpenter and ex-man-o'-war's-
man.

"Aye, aye, sir," said the latter when the two were parting on the main
deck after the termination of their labours in the lower hold. "I
recognised your honour the moment you came on deck that morning of the
storm in the Bay of Biscay. I couldn't mistake the cut of your h